Main Cast: Dexter Gordon, François Cluzet, Gabrielle Haker, Christine Pascal, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, John Berry, Lonette McKee
Release Year: 1986
Country: US/FR
Run Time: 133 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
A French music lover befriends a once-great American jazz artist and attempts to save him from self-destruction in this moody drama. Saxophonist Dexter Gordon portrays Dale Turner, a fictional musician inspired by a number of famed jazz figures, including Bud Powell and Lester Young. Largely forgotten in his home country, Turner has moved to Paris in search of a more appreciative audience. He finds it in the form of Francis Borler (Francois Cluzet), a bebop aficionado who befriends the expatriate player. Borler soon becomes familiar with Turner's darker side, including his struggles with alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression. Fearing for the musician's life, the fan becomes his caretaker, an arrangement that leads to a brief improvement in Turner's health and fortunes but places great emotional strain upon them both. Director Bertrand Tavernier pays great attention to the visual and aural details of the jazz world, with outstanding musical supervision provided by Herbie Hancock. 'Round Midnight's greatest asset, however, is Gordon's Academy Award-nominated performance, informed by his own life experiences. His naturally fascinating presence combines with the film's obvious love of the music and its milieu to provide what many have hailed as one of the more authentic and affectionate presentations of the jazz world on the silver screen. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Review
'Round Midnight, a film inspired by the lives of Bud Powell and Lester Young, is director Bertrand Tavernier's audio-visual lament for the impending death of jazz. Tavernier utilizes a roving camera and be-bop editing to tell this story of the relationship between a self-destructive, emotionally-disintegrating but technically-brilliant jazz legend (Dexter Gordon) living and working in exile in France, and his fawning Gaullic admirer (Francois Cluzet). A subtle chauvinism underlies the story, as America is the land that devours its genius, while France succors it. The startlingly authentic performance of real-life tenor-sax legend and non-actor Dexter Gordon in the lead role is a stroke of genius. His raspy staccato delivery captures the world-weariness of his character perfectly, while he and fellow players' superb musicianship in the key performance passages adds an important element of authenticity and verisimilitude to the proceedings (all performances were filmed live, with no post-production dubbing). Herbie Hancock's Academy Award-winning musical helmsmanship layers the film with a moody melancholia, allowing it to tell its story with jazz riffs as much as words. The story is thinly-plotted, lyrical, and romantic, guided by the spirit of the art form it celebrates. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide
Martin Scorsese - Goodley; Herbie Hancock - Eddie Wayne; Bobby Hutcherson - Ace; Pierre Trabaud - Francis's Father; Frederique Meininger - Francis's Mother; Ron Carter - Himself (Bass); Billy Higgins - Drums; Freddie Hubbard - Trumpet; Eric Le Lann - Trumpet; Pierre Michelot - Bass; Palle Mikkelborg - Trumpet; Mads Vinding - Bass; Wayne Shorter - Tenor Saxophone (Blue Note), Soprano Saxophone (Davou; Cedar Walton - Piano; Tony Williams - Drums; Liliane Rovere - Madame Queen; Ged Marlon - Beau; Hart Leroy Bibbs - Hershell; Benoit Regent - Psychiatrist; Victoria Gabrielle Platt - Chan; Arthur French - Booker; Alain Sarde - Terzian; Philippe Noiret - Redon; Eddy Mitchell - A Drunk; Guy Louret; Patrick Massieu; Jimmy Slyde; Pascale Vignal; Jacques Poitrenaud; Charles Belonzi; Arnaud Chevrier; Cheikh Fall - Percussion; Philippe Moreau; Michel Perez - Guitar; Luc Sarot; Noel Simsolo; Davout Studio; Pascal Tedes; Marpessa Djian; John McLaughlin - Guitar
Credit
Pierre Duquesne - Art Director, Herbie Hancock - Conductor, Jacqueline Moreau - Costume Designer, Frederic Bourboulon - First Assistant Director, Bertrand Tavernier - Director, Armand Psenny - Editor, Herbie Hancock - Composer (Music Score), Frank Eyton - Songwriter, Dexter Gordon - Songwriter, Bernie Hanighen - Songwriter, Edward Heyman - Songwriter, Henri Renaud - Songwriter, Jimmy Rowles - Songwriter, Robert Sour - Songwriter, Stevie Wonder - Songwriter, Paul Le Marinel - Makeup, Monty Diamond - Production Designer, Alexandre Trauner - Production Designer, Bruno de Keyzer - Cinematographer, Irwin Winkler - Producer, Philippe Turlure - Set Designer, William Flageollet - Sound/Sound Designer, David Rayfiel - Screenwriter, Bertrand Tavernier - Screenwriter, Harold Arlen - Featured Music, Kenny Dorham - Featured Music, Vernon Duke - Featured Music, George Gershwin - Featured Music, Ira Gershwin - Featured Music, Johnny Green - Featured Music, E.Y. "Yip" Harburg - Featured Music, Herman Hupfeld - Featured Music, Thelonious Monk - Featured Music, Charlie "Bird" Parker - Featured Music, Cole Porter - Featured Music, Bud Powell - Featured Music, Billy Rose - Featured Music, Bessie Smith - Featured Music, Cootie Williams - Featured Music
Round Midnight is a 1986 film directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It tells the story of an African Americantenor saxophone player in Paris in the 1950s who becomes befriended by an unsuccessful French graphic designer who idolizes the musician and who tries desperately to help him to get out of his life of alcohol abuse. The protagonist jazzman, "Dale Turner," was based on a composite of real-life jazz legends Lester Young (tenor sax) and the tortured and enigmatic Bud Powell (piano). While the film is fictionalized, it is drawn directly from the memoir/biography Dance of the Infidels written by Francis Paudras, who had befriended Powell during his Paris expatriate days and on whom the character "Francis" is based. The film is a wistful and tragic portrait that captures the Paris jazz scene of the 1950s.
